"I am about to buy a house in a foreign country. A house with the beautiful name Bramasole." Bramare: (Arabic) To Yearn For, pg. 1

"This sack of money in question has been wired from California but has not arrived. How can that be, I ask at the bank, money is wired, it arrives instantaneously. More shrugs. Perhaps the main bank in Florence is holding it. Days pass." Bramare: (Arabic) To Yearn For, pg. 14

"Rule one in a restoration project: be there. We will be seven thousand miles away when some of the big work is done." A House and the Land It Takes Two Oxen Two Days to Plow, pg. 30

"May summer last a hundred years." The Wild Orchard, pg. 73

"Restoration. I like the word. The house, the land, perhaps ourselves. But restored to what? Our lives are full. It's our zeal for all this work that amazes me...